Posts Tagged ‘Motivation’

Businesses that want to see success as the economy continues to improve should keep a close eye on their top talent. If your star employees don’t feel like they’re getting the most out of their jobs or feel that they’re underappreciated, you can assume that they’re looking for enticing opportunities elsewhere. High retention rates indicate that an organization is doing well in employee engagement, but a strong retention rate also means success in other business areas, such as sales and customer satisfaction.

Implementing the 10 tips below will encourage your high-performing talent to stick around and help create success for your company:

1. Conduct Stay Interviews

Instead of using exit interviews to find out why employees leave your organization, ask the employees that are still around what would make them leave your organization. Use this information to transform inefficient processes, raise morale and increase your retention rate.

2. Be Specific with Job Descriptions

People often leave a company after a short period of time because they were unaware of all the responsibilities that their new position held. To prevent short stints with new hires, spell out all of the duties—bad or good—required for your open positions.

3. Teach Managers People Management

Employees often cite their managers as the main reason they left or are planning to leave an organization. Spend adequate time training managers with direct reports proper ways to handle employee relations issues.

4. Communicate Openly

Information that is confidential or intended for a select group of people doesn’t have to be shared with the entire staff. However, frequently sharing information on company health, financials and major decisions with your workforce will keep them informed and engaged, which will help them remain loyal.

5. Promote Flexibility

Today’s employees view workplace flexibility as a necessary element in a total rewards package instead of as an added perk. If your employees can work from home a few days per week or start their days earlier or later depending on traffic, let them. They will show you more respect if you trust them to get their work done.

6. Give Clear Expectations

Be specific when assigning your team members projects. Give them clear expectations the first time so you both are satisfied with the end product. Taking this step well lessen confusion, frustration and unsatisfactory results.

7. Help them Grow

Providing your staff members with different opportunities to increase their industry knowledge or to strengthen their technical and soft skills will show them that you are willing to invest in their future. Send them to training programs or promote them to different positions to help them grow.

Poor performers with bad attitudes are not good company for star employees to keep. Poor performers can drain energy, happiness and productivity from your top employees. Make sure you address issues caused by poor performers immediately to maintain a positive workplace for each of your employees.

9. Involve Senior Leadership

Company leaders are always busy, but they are never too busy to allot some time to their employees. Encourage your senior leaders to leave their offices and mingle with their workforce. Have them meet new hires and sit in on departmental meetings. Making them present in the office will eliminate an “us” versus “them” mentality that some staffers may have if they never see their senior leaders.

10. Show Them They’re Valued

Employees who feel that their contributions matter to their organization are more likely to be productive and give their company a long-term commitment. Make your staff members feel appreciated by giving them constructive and positive feedback on their assignments and professional development. Often ask for their opinions on company decisions, and take time to get to know them personally.

For additional information or strategies to keep your top talent loyal to your organization, please call a member of CAI’s Advice and Counsel Team at 919-878-9222 or 336-668-7746.

All successful company leaders and senior management executives understand the value that comes from long-term employee relationships. With low levels of turnover, organizations are better positioned for success, internal consistency and stability, but how can companies get to the point where employees consider their place of employment permanent instead of temporary? It all comes down to maintenance, recognizing individual and departmental needs and making those needs an overall company priority. Here are five ways to keep your employees’ loyalty at a high level:

Acknowledgement and appreciation of work well done – Confirmation of strong performance is more effective than you may realize. By publicly acknowledging the achievements of your staff, you remind individuals of their own personal value to the organization, which is critical. When employees can visually recognize that the work they do not only matters, but makes a difference on a companywide scale, they have little reason to find satisfaction elsewhere.

Upward growth opportunities – When given a challenging workload and excelling at the tasks at hand, employees sooner or later are going to inquire about internal advancement. Be open to discussing growth opportunities and remember, employees are not looking for instantaneous promotion; they just want to know that there is an open path for management consideration.

Healthy working environment – Does your company operate under high levels of tension, stress or anxiety? Monitor the environment your employees are exposed to and try to keep high levels of stress and concern within executive offices. When employees are aware of all elements of the organization, performance levels may decrease because of the concern and worry that arises.

Personal relationships and understanding – Employees are likely to remain loyal when relationships have a personal component. It’s important to maintain the subordinate-management roles, but make sure that employees understand you are there for support, mentorship and guidance.

Long-term employees have a strong organizational knowledge base that will assist in the teaching and training of new company members. Investing in your current staff will always benefit you and your company in the long run.

For additional information on employee retention, please call a member of CAI’s Advice and Counsel team at (919) 878-9222 or (336) 668-7746.

The common thread of motivation behind any employee survey is to gain effective feedback for recruitment and retention. With the proper analysis and actions taken as a result of what is learned, companies inevitably experience an increase in overall retention rates, benefiting employee morale and organizational expansion.

When it comes to new hire surveys, you want to be sure to identify your main goal before planning and developing the survey. Here are some target goals and recommendations.

Target Goal – Evaluating the Hiring Process

If you want to evaluate the hiring process, you will want to survey your new hires relatively soon after they come on board, ideally within the first two weeks in most cases. You will want to ask your new hires about the accuracy of information received while they were being recruited, how the organization was presented, their impression of the interview process and whether their direct supervisor met with them to discuss their career goals. Also, new hires are often asked for suggestions on improving the hiring process.

Target Goal – Evaluating the Onboarding Process

Proper onboarding is critical to the success of new employees, especially if you expect them to be productive relatively quickly. These surveys should be most effective when conducted 30-45 days after an employee’s start date. Topics discussed should include: did they receive the knowledge, resources and training needed to be productive in their job in a timely manner; whether their responsibilities and expectations were spelled out clearly; and whether they felt they were able to spend the time with their manager necessary to help them succeed.

Target Goal – Evaluating the Satisfaction of New Hires

If the goal is to analyze the growth and satisfaction of new hires, then employee evaluations should be administered 90 days after employment. Waiting approximately three months allows new staff members to become settled and confident in their position, fluid in their work process and comfortable with the day-to-day operations of the organization. At this point, the employee should be able to deliver healthy feedback regarding the challenges and strengths within company culture and management, as well as employee training, mentoring, and socialization.

All surveys should be conducted by either Human Resources or an independent third party rather than by direct supervisors to encourage honest feedback from employees. A “rated answer” response will allow the employer to aggregate the data and spot issues, while “open-ended” questions typically provide more details. Supervisors should also be asked to complete a survey with respect to new hires. This survey will provide feedback on the quality of the recruiting and hiring process overall.

Where applicable, request that new hires note their department, division, gender and race on the survey. This will serve to uncover potential issues within a department and identify any discriminatory treatment during the onboarding process.

For more information or to discuss related issues to new hire surveys, please call a member of CAI’s Advice and Counsel team at (919) 878-9222 or (336) 668-7746.

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A non-profit employers' association with offices in Raleigh and Greensboro, CAI serves the greater Research Triangle, Piedmont Triad and 65 central and eastern counties of North Carolina. We help more than 1,000 member companies maximize employee engagement and minimize employer liability ... more